determining place regulations on the internet
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Place Regulationson the Internet
Burning the Global Village
to Roast the Pig
John S. Gossett and Tami SutcliffeUniversity of North
Texas
http://www.informationart.org/symbolic.html
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Any content-based regulationof the Internet,
no matter how benign the purpose,
could burn the global
village to roast the pig.
The Internet is a far more
speech-enhancing medium than
print, the village green, or the mails (opinion by Judge Stewart Dalzell, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in ACLU v. Reno,
929 F. Supp. 824 (E.D.Pa. 1996).
http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/aclureno.htmhttp://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/aclureno.htmhttp://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/aclureno.htmhttp://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/aclureno.htm -
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What are time, place and manner regulations?
content-neutral justifications for restricting free
speech in government-owned spaces
subject to over-breadth challenges
subject to"compatible use" tests:
Is the activity suitable for the physical location?
Will the tangible limits of a given space work efficiently with a
particular activity?
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What is Public Forum Doctrine?
How time, place and manner regulations
have been historically applied to free
speech issues in government-owned spaces
measurablephysical characteristics (Davis v. Massachusetts, 167 U.S. 43).
legal jurisdiction determined byphysical location
includes spatial tactics, spatial neutrality and spatialtailoring (Zick, 2006)
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Where are time, place and manner regulations
enforced?Government-owned space includes three tiers:
Non-public forums: heavily regulated, with statesexercising control. [prisons,
military bases, polling places, a school district's internal mail system, airport terminals]
Limited public forums: Regulated based on the
nature of the physical property itself[university meeting facilities, municipal theaters, school board meeting rooms.]
Traditional public forums:[publicly accessible locations such as streets, sidewalks, parks]
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When are place restrictions constitutionally
valid?1. Serves an important governmental interest
2. Government interest is unrelated to the suppression of
a particular message
3. Narrowly tailored to serve the government's interest
4. Leaves open ample alternative means for
communicating this message
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So, what is the Internet?
An international network of interconnectedcomputers (Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 [1997])
A unique and wholly new medium of worldwidehuman communication" (ibid)
An international hardware network of
interconnected computers not limited to a single
physical or tangible entity
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How is the Web different from the Internet?
FYI: TECHNICAL ISSUE:
The Internet:
international
hardware network
interconnected
older than the Web
tied to physical place
The World Wide Web
nonspatial
ever-shiftingnavigational software
less directly related
to geographical location
Physically removing a networked computer from a library
building is a form of place restriction, as is filtering a list of
words from a library search engine
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What type ofpublic forum is the Internet?
Thephysical location of any given Webserver on the Internet is usually irrelevant tothe messages being communicated.
The data does not stay in one place, nor canit be identified by either its source nor itsdestination.
Immediate, anonymous, inexpensive andseemingly borderless" (Franda, 2001).
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MORE Reasonsthe Internet
is a problematic forum Jurisdiction online is currently based on the
physical place the server resides.
Even if the content is illegal in some countries,no laws can be enforced on the server itself.
Internet Service Providers are not the equivalent of
publishers in the physical world.Publishers actually do know everything they
publish while ISPs cannot.
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Can placerealistically be used
to regulate Internet expression?
Since 2002, twenty five states have passed
or are considering passing Internetcensorship laws (ACLU 2006)
But traditional vocabularies of physicalplace fail to describe the Internet, so howwill these laws ever be viable?
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Can placerealistically be used
to regulate Internet expression?
Obviously, governments and the private
sector must come to an agreement oninternational legal standards for the free
flow of information and privacy (Weitzner,
2006.).
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Place restrictions applied to online communication
Restriction Type I: governmental agency limits the
way an individual may use the Internet in a public
setting.
Restriction Type II:public school limits the way a
student may use the Internet in a private setting.
Restriction Type III: governmental agency censors
the entire contents of an Internet-wide provider in apublic setting.
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Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
EXAMPLE:The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)requires libraries and schools to install filters on their
Internet computers to retain federal funding. The filters
remove materials determined by the commercial vendors
who produce the filters. There is no organized oversight ofthe filter content selection process.
Restriction Type I: governmental agency limiting
the way an individual may use the Internet in a
public setting.
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/cipaweb/legalhistory/cipatext.pdfhttp://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/cipaweb/legalhistory/cipatext.pdf -
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Restriction Type I: governmental agency limiting
the way an individual may use the Internet in apublic setting
--fromIamBigBrothers web site:
"IamBigBrother Records everything secretly.
As with all of our monitoring software, IamBigBrother
runs in total secrecy, and is very hard to find.
IamBigBrother will not slow down your computer, or
do anything noticeable to the user.
History of U.S. online speech regulation in libraries:
Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
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Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
EXAMPLE: Eighth-grade student Jessica Schoch was notallowed to attend school or participate in extracurricular
activities after school officials discovered a MySpace.com
profile she created at home on her own time that parodied
a school administrator.
Restriction Type II: public school limits the way a
student may use the Internet in a private setting.
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/youth/25381prs20060427.htmlhttp://www.aclu.org/freespeech/youth/25381prs20060427.htmlhttp://www.aclu.org/freespeech/youth/25381prs20060427.html -
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Restriction Type II: public
school limits the way a student
may use the Internet in a
private setting.
Free speech issues related to student
Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
http://www.ncac.org/action_issues/Youth.cfmhttp://www.facebook.com/http://www.ncac.org/action_issues/Youth.cfm -
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Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
EXAMPLE:In July of 2006,India's Department of Telecommunications instructed
Internet service providers to block access to the three
largest blogging domains including blogspot.com,
typepad.com, and geocities.com. and refused to provideany explanations for the blockade.
Restriction Type III: governmental agency censors
the entire contents of an Internet-wide provider in a
public setting.
http://tailrank.com/posts/562949953736899/BlogSpot_blocked_by_Indian_ISPshttp://tailrank.com/posts/562949953736899/BlogSpot_blocked_by_Indian_ISPs -
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Restriction Type III: governmental agency censors the
entire contents of an Internet-wide provider in a
public setting.
Google's capitulation to the Chinese g
to ban certain kinds of online content.
Department of Justice
subpoenas of search data from
Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.
Examples of traditional place restrictions applied to online communication
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71107-0.htmlhttp://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102061http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102061http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71107-0.html -
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3 important debates:
Is human behavior really different online?
Can we define speech vs action?
Is there really a "pornography problem" online?
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Is human behavior really
different online?
NO
Cyberspace is not much
different than any other form
of human communication and
existing systems of law
should be able to deal with
online conflicts fairly well.
(Goldsmith, 1998).
YESInternational nature of the network
and the anarchic/transient
characteristics of law breaking
allow speed & anonymity
Internet tends to complement
rather than displace existing media(Robinson, 2003).
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Speech oraction?
Online communication smudges somedivisions between speech and conduct
(sometimes considered "non-speech"). Posting files, sending emails and
responding in online discussions are acts.
Writing a blog and designing a web pageare perhaps morepurely speech alone.
When should these activities be censored?
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Is there really a
"pornography problem" online? Cyber-sex Scare of 1995.
Time and Newsweek cover stories related toCarnegie Mellon study on pornography use online
Media-induced hysteria over online childpornography was largely unfoundedThe incidence of pornographic imagery
appearing online probably reflects the incidence ofsuch materials appearing in society as a whole(Hamilton, 1999).
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983116,00.htmlhttp://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/www/rimm/cmu.htmlhttp://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/www/rimm/cmu.htmlhttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983116,00.html -
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So what to do?
Context of the message and not the
technological characteristics should be the
central criteria in deciding First
Amendment protection.
The Internet is often described as a common
enterprise community so self regulation will
be most effective
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Cohen v California (1971)
"Unwelcome views and ideas cannot be
totally banned from the public dialogue"
Discussions of harm versus offensivenessmust always consider the chilling effect of
online censorship (403. U.S. 15).
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Guidelines
Is the audience captive?
Is the message likely to cause a breach of
the peace?
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Final Questions
Can the state ever forbid the use of certain words,even in "the public good"?
While filtering may be encouraged in the privacyof a home, should filtering without oversight beenforced by law in public settings such aslibraries?
END NOTE:
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Greetings from the world of
Radical MilitantLibrarians
FBI documents from2003 reveal a series of e-
mails in which FBI
agents complain about
"radical, militant
librarians" interfering
with the use of secret
warrants authorized
under Section 215 of the
USA PATRIOT Act.
-- Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
END NOTE:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/foia/fbi_email1.pdfhttp://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/foia/fbi_email1.pdf -
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http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/foia/fbi_email1.pdf -
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In recognition of the
efforts of librarians to help
raise awareness of the
overreaching aspects ofthe USA PATRIOT Act,
the
American Library Associat
Office for IntellectualFreedom is offering
librarians an opportunity
to proudly proclaim their
"radical" and "militant"
support for intellectual
freedom, privacy, and civil
liberties.
https://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/basicrelatedlinks/radicalbutton.htmhttp://www.cafepress.com/buy/radical+militant+librarians/-/pv_design_prod/p_1487768.42604837/pNo_42604837/id_10417555/fpt_/opt_/c_360/pg_1http://www.cafepress.com/buy/radical%20militant%20librarians/-/pv_design_prod/p_storeid.41093295/pNo_41093295/id_10201060/opt_/pg_/c_/fpt_https://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/basicrelatedlinks/radicalbutton.htm
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